TheHitchhikers GuideTo The Galaxy

Earth Edition

Bezique

Can anybody list the full rules for Polish Bezique? This is a game for 2 players. Two 32 card packs are used as for Royal Bezique. I am pretty sure that the rules were given in the old Waddingtons Bezique sets but I have lost mine. I vaguely remember that cards had to be won in tricks rather than simply held in the hand before they could be used to make up scoring combinations.

Bezique

Bezique

Thank you for your kind offer to try to track down the rules for Polish Bezique. I thought that it was a good game, partly because, although there was still a strong element of luck involved in the cards you were dealt, there was also the possibility of improving your chances by skill by taking cards won in tricks from your opponent which could then be used to make scoring combinations.

As far as I can remember:

8 cards are dealt in the usual Bezique way to each player from the deck and then one more card is turned face up to determine trumps.

Play continues as in Royal Bezique except that the players can only score combinations from cards which they have accumulated from tricks which they have won. Every time a trick is won potential scoring cards are assembled, face up, in front of the player and the rest are discarded.

I can't remember whether combinations can be scored right up to the end of the game or only until the pack is exhausted.

I cannot remember the rules about following suit or trumping but suspect that, as in Royal Bezique, these only come into play in the final 8 tricks. Similarly, I am not sure, in these last 8 tricks, whether or not there is any obligation on the player to win tricks if possible.

I do know that the full rules for Polish Bezique were printed in a Bezique set from the 1970s which belonged to a friend of mine. He can't find this set, but we both think that it was made by Waddingtons.

Thanks again for your offer of help. I will watch this space with great interest!

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